As a conventional side-push push-button switch, as disclosed in patent documents 1 and 2, there has been known a push-button switch including a switch contact, a push-button member, and a housing. The switch contact is made up of a fixed contact and a movable contact. The push-button member presses the switch contact. The housing has an opening in which this push-button member is inserted. The housing is made of resin and accommodates the switch contact. A plurality of electrode portions to electrically connect to the fixed contact are formed on a rear surface of the housing. An inclined guide portion is disposed in the housing and inclined toward the center of the movable contact. In the push-button switch of this configuration, when the push-button member is pressed, the distal end of the push-button member abuts against the inclined guide portion and is guided down along the inclined guide portion to bring the movable contact into contact with the fixed contact. A horizontal slide movement of the push-button member is transmitted to the elastic movable contact through the inclined guide portion. This enables ON-OFF operation of the movable contact and the fixed contact.
The push-button switch of this configuration has the housing surrounded by a metal holding frame. This holding frame is secured to a circuit board by soldering. Since the push-button switch is used as a side switch of a small-size digital device such as a cellular phone, there is a demand for thinning the push-button switch. Consequently, there has been often employed a surface mounting method by which the thickness of the push-button switch mounted on the circuit board is decreased. In this surface mounting, reflow processing is performed to secure and electrically connect the push-button switch to the motherboard at the same time.